Is College and Career Readiness an Internationally Competitive

Standard?April Hansen

Director of Program ServicesACT Midwest Region – Educational Services

Affirming the Goal

Why do we care?

Our Challenge

Between 2008 and 2018…• 29 million students will graduate from public high

schools …• 34 million jobs will need to be filled due to retiring or

transitioning workers…• 10 million of the 29 million public high school

graduates will be underrepresented students who traditionally have been underserved by K-12 education.

To fill workforce demands, it is critical that each student graduate from high school ready for college and career.

Source: Business Roundtable, Dec. 2009

Our Challenge

4

Many students are not prepared to meet the hurdles they face throughout the academic pipeline, and they don’t persist and succeed.

NCES 2010

Enter 9th grade

HS Graduate

Enter College

College Graduate

(Bachelor’s)

~100% 96.9% 74.9% 52.5% 29.0%

Leaky Educational Pipeline

Leaky Educational Pipeline

% who graduate from public high schools: 76%

% who immediately go on to college: 57%% of 9th graders who graduate from high school on

time, go directly to college, return for their 2nd year,

and graduate within 150% of program time: 20%NCHEMS. (2011)

The Illinois Pipeline

% who graduate from public high schools: 88

% who immediately go on to college: 64% of 9th graders who graduate from high school on

time, go directly to college, return for their 2nd year,

and graduate within 150% of program time: 27NCHEMS.

(2011)

The Iowa Pipeline

Pop Quiz

What’s the number of American high school students who drop out of school, every day, bored, frustrated, or so far behind that they’ve given up?

6,000

Leaky Educational Pipeline

45%27%

Percentage of students taking at least one remedial course at community colleges and 4-year institutions

Source: National Center for Education Statistics

Remediation

$5.6BAnnual estimated cost of college remediation in the United States

Source: Alliance for Excellent Education

Remediation

The level of preparation a student needs to be ready to enroll and succeed in—without remediation—a first-year, credit-bearing course at two- or four-year institutions or in trade or technical schools.

Adopted by the Common Core State Standards Initiative

ACT’s Definition of College ReadinessACT’s Definition of College and Career Readiness

TestCollege Course

EXPLOREGrade 8

EXPLOREGrade 9

PLANGrade 10

ACT Compass

EnglishEnglish

Composition 13 14 15 18 77

MathCollege Algebra 17 18 19 22 52

Reading Social Science 15 16 17 21 88

Science Biology 20 20 21 24 NA

How do we define college and career readiness?Empirically derived scores needed on an ACT subject-area test to indicate a 50% chance of obtaining a B or higher or a 75% chance of obtaining a C or higher in the corresponding first-year credit-bearing college course.

146,822Students tookthe ACT in theIllinois gradClass.

23,119Students tookhe ACT in the IOWA gradClass, an estimated 63% of your grad class.

Students who are college/career ready when they leave high school have a significantly higher likelihood of:

– Enrolling in a postsecondary program,– Enrolling in credit bearing courses without the need for

remediation,– Succeeding in entry level postsecondary course work,– Persisting in their postsecondary education, – Completing a postsecondary degree or training program,

and – Entering the job market with significantly higher lifetime

earning potential.

Regardless of ethnicity and SES

Value of College Readiness

$26,000Average annual salary difference between college and high school graduates

Source: 2008 Census Bureau

Earnings Potential

But Can We Compete?

• Linking analysis: PISA to PLAN®

– Reading and mathematics– 2,248 US 10th grade students– 77 high schools– Students took both PISA and PLAN under

standardized conditions

Is College and Career Readiness an Internationally Competitive Standard?

7th

Estimated U.S. rank on PISA if all students were college and career ready

Source: ACT, Affirming the Goal

Internationally Competitive

$507BEstimated annual increase in GDP if the U.S. could improve its PLAN performance by 11% over the next 20 years.

OECD, The High Cost of Low Educational Performance: The Long-Run Impact of Improving PISA Outcomes, 2010

Economic Impact

What about Illinois and Iowa?

117,734

2011-2012PLAN testedstudents

• Affirming the Goal: Is College and Career Readiness an Internationally Competitive Standard?

http://www.act.org/research/policymakers/reports/affirmingthegoal.html

• The Condition of College and Career Readiness 2012

http://www.act.org/newsroom/data/2012/

• State Reports 2010-2011: Midwest Higher Education Compact www.mhec.org

Resources